Posts Tagged ‘Blackberry’

Over the course of the weekend I decided to observe the various phones people were using wherever I was. I hadn’t intended to do this, but when someone pulled out his phone to take a picture of something right in front of me I happened to notice it was an HTC Evo. My first thought about that was kudos for using Android. I then decided to look around and see what other people were using.

Of the four or five phones I saw taking photos at the event I was at, I didn’t see any iPhones. I saw one Blackberry, and the rest, including mine, were Android. Incidentally the event was the opening night of the Seaside Highland Games, an annual Scottish heritage celebration. I went to the event the next day, and again observed cell phones, whenever I happened to see them. I went the whole weekend without seeing a single iPhone, until I left the event and encountered some Sunday (American) Football fans in the pub. Even then, I only saw one iPhone.

As I watched NCIS Los Angeles (don’t know why I can’t stop watching that awful spin-off) I noticed an iPhone in use. As I thought about it, iPhones are featured in a lot of television shows and movies. One would think that everybody walks around with iPhones. Where I work, the iPhone is in the majority among the IT staff. I am currently the sole Android user in my department. This would seem to track with the trend I noticed on television. It seems that a lot of the non-tech crowd is into Android, however.

These observations were far from scientific, as I only casually observed phones, and then only when I was close enough to figure out what the phone was. I just found it interesting how common Android phones are in the real world. There are without question a number of influencing factors, of which I am well aware. AT&T seems to do pretty well in Ventura County, but it is the only carrier with the iPhone and I likely encountered a lot of Sprint and Verizon customers over the weekend. I also was around a particular social group, and they may or may not intentionally prefer Android. I could go on about the influencing factors, but I think it is fair enough to say that I wasn’t trying to be scientific here. I was simply enjoying my weekend and made some observations that interested me.

Have you noticed an increase in Android devices in your area? Let me know in the comments.

Webstats firm Quantcast has announced August numbers for mobile web consumption. According to Quantcast, Android is rising dramatically while the other mobile OS firms are losing marketshare. Android was shown to provide 25% of the mobile web consumption in August.

The above image shows a rapid decline in iOS share, with a proportional rise in Android use. RIM and “Other” devices have been more stagnant than plummeting, but these stats strongly suggest Android is on the rise in a big way. Quantcast goes on to show a bar chart of the growth patterns of mobile operating systems. Android gained 2% over the month, 5.5% over the quarter, and 17% over the year. In this chart it is the only OS in positive territory.

These numbers aren’t entirely surprising. Apple fanboys will be quick to point out that their single device (though there are several) is still doing better overall than Android’s plethora. These charts suggest that should be changing soon, as they should. Android devices by far outnumber Apple devices in the number of available options. Apple has a few versions of the iPhone, the iPad, and iPod Touch. Each major US carrier now has several Android devices. These numbers were bound to improve. Does this change the fact that I am happy to see the Android growth? Not at all. I am very happy with my Android experience.

So what does this mean in the big picture? In the short term, it means a lot more Android phone production. Android will start to get the love only experienced previously by Apple. Big Brand firms will start touting their Android apps, or at least offer apps to both Android and Apple customers. Microsoft is virtually out of the race. The death of the Kin seems to indicate the current state of affairs at Microsoft. There are a number of Windows 7 phones coming, but I haven’t heard anyone talking about them. RIM manages to hang on somehow, even with all the talk of Android versus iPhone. With Palm going under and being picked up by HP, it looks like we are going to continue to have iPhone vs Android debates for some time to come.